Rodney Ervin worked for the Post Office, originally as a rural mail carrier then later, in Ottumwa, IA. He began to suffer severe headaches and would have spells where he lost sensation in an arm or leg. It was determined that he had a brain tumor and went to the University of Iowa Hospital for surgery. His tumor was something called a “dermoid” and he would have had it all his life. Although the surgery was successful, he succumbed to post-operative pneumonia.